Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital to celebrate its 60th 'birthday'

Jo Scattini gave birth to her daughter, Catherine, with great fanfare at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital 60 years ago next month. She was the first baby born at the hospital, a day after it opened.

Upon Catherine's arrival, a friend offered the well-known Salinas family an oak sapling to commemorate the occasion, and the Scattinis planted it at their nearby home. "Catherine's Oak" has grown along with the family as the Scattinis' children and grandchildren were born at Salinas Valley Memorial.

On Thursday, Jo, 86, and her daughter will be among the honored guests at a Celebrate Sixty party at the hospital to mark its sixth decade in service. The party, which is open to the public, starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Heart Center Circle in front of the hospital's Romie Lane campus. Free valet parking will be available in the parking garage and appetizers will be served at the celebration, which concludes with a Celebrate Sixty cake.

On the guest list for Thursday's celebration is 96-year-old Roy Diaz, a World War II veteran and Bataan Death March survivor from Salinas, who helped dedicate the hospital "in memory of the men and women of the armed forces who made the supreme sacrifice for their community and nation."

Salinas native Harry Wardwell, president of the Salinas Valley Memorial board of directors, said the event will recognize the importance of the hospital to the community over the decades, while looking to the future.

Wardwell, who was born just before the hospital opened, said his children and grandchildren were born there, like those of so many Salinas-area families. He said he is confident the hospital will be there for local families for years to come.

"It's probably the community's most important asset," Wardwell said. "I'm very excited about the hospital's future."

Salinas Valley Memorial opened April 20, 1953, more than a decade after a fundraising effort began with formation of the Salinas Community Hospital Association just before the start of World War II. The effort was led by Bruce Church, the Salinas agri-businessman who donated the land for the hospital, along with community leaders such as Franklin Cornell, James King, T.R. Merrill, Oscar Daley and 175 others who helped raise $300,000 for the facility despite a hiatus during the war years.

The 138-bed hospital included 100 employees, 45 of them physicians, and "medical and surgical patient floors, pathology and radiology labs, operating rooms, a fracture room, a physical therapy unit and a pediatric unit with a nursery and a 'pacing room' for fathers-to-be," according to the hospital's website.

The public district hospital has grown into a 269-bed facility employing 1,611 people, including 265 physicians, at the core of the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System's network of health care programs, services and facilities.